Social activist and former Indian Police Service officer Kiran Bedi has said that children should play a major role in enhancing palliative care services in the country.
She was addressing a meeting here on Wednesday to launch ‘Students for Palliative Care’, a project of Alpha Pain Clinic, which provided free palliative care to patients. Under the project, boxes will be kept in schools and colleges, in which each student would deposit Re. 1 a day for palliative care.
“By doing so, every child becomes a good human being. You are contributing a drop. And thus creating an ocean. It is an ocean of care. When you offer to heal someone, you get healed,” she said.
She said that helping those in need was the most important task in life. “There are occasions that prove that money cannot do anything, that it is worthless. I went through a similar situation when my sister was diagnosed with cancer. She was my dearest. And I prayed to God that I was ready to give up anything in life to keep her alive. But I lost her. She could be given nothing other than palliative care. Then I realised the importance of this discipline,” she said.
Former Sri Lankan cricketer Chaminda Vaas and former Indian cricketer Sairaj Bahutule exhorted the students to support palliative care services.
Therambil Ramakrishnan, MLA, Mayor I.P. Paul, District Collector P.M. Francis, Inspector General of Police S. Gopinathan, entreprenurs Harshad Mehta, T.A. Sundar Menon and Alpha Pain Clinic chairman K.M. Noordeen were present.
According to the World Health Organisation, palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
Palliative care provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms; integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care; offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death; will enhance quality of life; and is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
